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Underground Mac Community Foils a Coup

Posted by kdawson on Sun Sep 09, 2007 03:24 PM
from the fortunately-bloodless dept.
Businesses Apple
An anonymous reader writes "In an attempted palace coup that would not have been out of place in a Shakespearian tragedy, a moderator faction at Mac Serial Junkie, one of the largest underground Mac communities, was shut out this weekend after it was discovered that many staff members were plotting a coup. The plans included a surreptitious takeover of the domain name macserialjunkie.com. In an Open Letter to the Community, the founders of MSJ explain how a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years, only to be foiled at the last minute."
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Submission: The largest underground Mac community faces coup by Anonymous Coward
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  • Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:26PM (#20531051)
    I assume this is some sort of piracy forum, but regardless, who cares? This stuff happens all the time on forums and IRC. Owner X doesn't do much/disappears leaving Y in charge. Y gets upset that he's doing all the work while X enjoys ownership. Y plots takeover, and either does or fail and is replaced by Z.

    • tag this whocares (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Kreigaffe (765218)
      seriously, e-drama. seriously.

      • Re:tag this whocares (Score:5, Insightful)

        by quanticle (843097) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:31PM (#20531101) Homepage

        No kidding. This is like the stories about scams and drama in EVE Online, but even more irrelevant.

        • Re:tag this whocares (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ScytheBlade1 (772156) <scytheblade1@NOSpaM.averageurl.com> on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:37PM (#20531137) Homepage Journal
          This is one story that I honestly feel could be deleted, and no one would care.

          Because no one cares.

          Get this off the front page.

          • Re:tag this whocares (Score:5, Funny)

            by Himring (646324) on Sunday September 09 2007, @09:46PM (#20533933) Homepage Journal
            And the editors reject so many worth-while stories. LoL! I can see it now:

            [Takes hit off joint] Editor: "Let's see [in a holding-breath-talking-way-that-pot-smokers-do], submissions, submissions, submissions.... Hrmm, 'Life found on mars' ... nah [rejected], 'ancient silicon chip found in egypt' ... nah [rejects], "ETI found 20 light years away" ... nah [rejects]. Omg! e-drama among mac geeks! Yes!!! [accepts]...."

          • Re:tag this whocares (Score:5, Interesting)

            by 24-bit Voxel (672674) on Sunday September 09 2007, @08:11PM (#20533273) Journal
            Funny you should mention this. When I was just a kid of about 12 or 13 years old the going modem rate was 2400 baud and BBS's were where it was at. The rules to get access to the adult sections were always crazy like send in a photocopy of a drivers license, and often times pretending to be a girl and flirting with the sysop gained you entry within 10 minutes, no ID required. Most of the time I just typed out word for word the bs letters from penthouse/playboy I'd found in my dad's closet. (In these days porn 'video' found online was usually about 12 frames of animation that was looped very well so the male was in a perpetual thrusting motion. Hilarious.)


            The best is when they called you out for downloading porn that obviously was predominately female, and telling the sysop that you really liked girls as well as guys and before you know it you have superuser status. You could download all kinds of things with that. (I think this is how I played police quest 2.) I remember having to setup fake 'meetings' with some of these sysops, just to keep status for a few more days. Nothing elevated user privelages faster than the possibility of some "hot chick" who is into girls and wants to meet you. Then I'd hide out for a few months and repeat the process all over again.


            My pops at the time didn't have unlimited local calling for the phone line and our first months phone bill was something like 700 dollars. Ah, those were the days.

            Anyway, don't always assume that the "chatroom moderator" isn't just out to find some busty images back in those days. Often it was guys pretending to be girls.

      • Re:tag this whocares (Score:5, Funny)

        by sg3000 (87992) * <sg_public@@@mac...com> on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:40PM (#20531167)
        > tag this whocares

        No, there's too much of a risk that someone will think that Dr. Who or those simpletons the Grinch was ripping off actually care about this tempest in a teapot.

        It would make more sense if Slashdot started a section specifically for stories like this. They could combine it with stories about changing alliances among pre-teen girls at our local Junior High School and which C-list celebrities are feuding with their former cast members. They could even reuse the OMG Ponies theme.

        • Re:tag this whocares (Score:5, Funny)

          by quanticle (843097) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:52PM (#20531283) Homepage

          Yes, and to further drive home the distinction, they could even place it under a different domain. Something like, Fark.com [fark.com] perhaps...

          /kidding
          //this is probably too irrelevant even for Fark
          ///slashies on Slashdot

        • Oh god... (Score:5, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:01PM (#20531363)
          You know I'm going to hold you personally responsible for this if they create gossip.slashdot.org. I can just hear them now discussing how popular sites like TMZ and The Smoking Gun are.

          On the plus side, though, it might bring more girls to Slashdot.

    • Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:30PM (#20531097)
      Yea, it's a site to swap software serial numbers. Amusing that people who are content to rip off other people's hard work suddenly think they have the moral high ground when they're about to be ripped off themselves. Pot, kettle, etc.

      • Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Funny)

        by gEvil (beta) (945888) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:50PM (#20531261)
        Pot, kettle, etc.

        Boiling water? Tea? Why yes, I would love a spot of tea.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by vertinox (846076)
        Amusing that people who are content to rip off other people's hard work suddenly think they have the moral high ground when they're about to be ripped off themselves.

        Are we talking about the CEO who laid off half the development team, required the remainder to work over time, and then gave himself a bonus by firing the rest after the product went gold or the pirates?

        I say this because more than naught developers are underpaid for their work and then have the hounds released on them by the bean counters when

        • Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Foerstner (931398) on Sunday September 09 2007, @05:24PM (#20532059)

          Are we talking about the CEO who laid off half the development team, required the remainder to work over time, and then gave himself a bonus by firing the rest after the product went gold or the pirates?

          I say this because more than naught developers are underpaid for their work and then have the hounds released on them by the bean counters when quarter figures need to look better.


          Nice little Freudian slip there.

          I'd wager that most of the successful commercial software companies treat their developers with a modicum of dignity. Sure, there have been dozens of exceptions over the years, but by and large it's hard to stay in the business if you treat your programmers like shit. It's a good way to make sure your company is a one-hit wonder. Perhaps that's why Adobe, Microsoft, and Google have all been on the "Best Companies to Work For" list, as have other software firms. They may not please all of their employees, but they generally have a reputation for taking care of their own.

          It's often a meaner existence for programmers who work for non-software companies like financial or logistics firms--they're viewed as a "cost," not a revenue stream.

      • Drat! (Score:5, Funny)

        by peacefinder (469349) <alan.dewitt @ g m a i l . com> on Sunday September 09 2007, @05:01PM (#20531861) Journal
        "Yea, it's a site to swap software serial numbers."

        Darn, I was hoping it was a site about Mac serial ports. I was gonna go ask a question...

    • Thanks so far, for making sense out of this post, but:

      "... one of the largest underground Mac communities ... a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years,...

      WTF? No seriously WTF?

    • Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Funny)

      by rlp (11898) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:58PM (#20531317)
      Underground Mac community?? Do Morlocks use Macs?

    • Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Funny)

      by ksheff (2406) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:01PM (#20531367) Homepage
      CmdrTaco is getting scared that CowboyNeal is going to take over.

  • This Is News For Nerds?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:29PM (#20531085)
    This sounds like it should be an item in a high school newspaper. No wonder, it's a kdawson story, poster of all useless and leftist drivel.

    Are you guys going to cover how Timmy is going to plotting to take over the treehouse next?

    • kdawson is a shared account (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Nymz (905908) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:07PM (#20531421) Journal
      Anytime there's a story that's not story-worthy, or obviously false politcal propaganda, they use the kdawson account to publish it, thus saving their own reputation. There is no way it could be one man.

    • Re:This Is News For Nerds?? (Score:4, Informative)

      by DeepHurtn! (773713) on Sunday September 09 2007, @07:14PM (#20532859)
      "Leftist" drivel...? He posts shit in general, but I don't think it's particularly lefty stuff. I *wish* it was; I'm what most people would call a leftist, and I think /. could use a bit more (but I know this place leans towards U.S.-style capitalistic libertarianism, so whatever). But did you catch kdawson's gem from a couple of days ago? [slashdot.org] That's some pretty crazy right wing nutso land crap he posted to the front page.

      No, kdawson just posts crud. Period.

  • Days of our lives (Score:5, Funny)

    by dekkerdreyer (1007957) <dekkerdreyer@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:39PM (#20531155)
    This is quite a soap opera, but I think only people who regularly post on those forums could really care. So here's to the three of you.

    Next week on slashdot: How one moderator over at knittingmachines.org thwarted an attempt by 31337gr4ndm4 to copy the patterns of beloved moderator iknit4u.

  • WGAF (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DoctorPepper (92269) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:39PM (#20531161)
    All of you GROW UP! go on, get out of your parent's basement, into the real world. Get a real job and a (girl|boy)friend and just get on with your lives!

    None of this shit means anything outside of your silly little group. Sheesh!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by thijs_w (876018)
      [...] get out of your parent's basement, into the real world. Get a real job and a (girl|boy)friend and just get on with your lives!

      You must be new here.

    • Re:WGAF (Score:5, Funny)

      by Poromenos1 (830658) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:09PM (#20531443) Homepage
      Man, you did not just use a regular expression when telling people to get girlfriends. Tell me that's not it.

  • It had to be said (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cait Sidhe (1026312) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:50PM (#20531265)
    Internets: Serious Business

  • How the hell did this make the front page? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by djkitsch (576853) on Sunday September 09 2007, @03:53PM (#20531289) Homepage
    I mean...really? Slow news day, huh?

  • tag: firehoseabuse (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nimey (114278) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:02PM (#20531373) Homepage Journal
    I see the trolls are gaming the firehose.

  • In Other News (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stevecat (198954) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:03PM (#20531397) Homepage
    SmR writes
    "In an attempted anthill coup that would not have been out of place in a tragic Discovery Channel special, the red ants in my backyard, owners of one of the largest anthills underground in my backyard, were doused with gasoline this weekend after it was discovered that a faction of the worker ants were plotting a coup. The plans included an unprecedented and sneaky incursion into my kitchen trash containing an old big Mac, cereal, and tasty junk. In an unexpected move I placed some honey-soaked borax in their trail and the poison infiltrated into the highest levels of their underground empire. Then dousing thier anthill with gasoline I ended their reign of almost two years, and thus they were foiled before my wife got home."

    Honestly, I think my story is more interesting.

    SmR

  • I found it interesting.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by erktrek (473476) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:20PM (#20531509)
    I know nothing about this site and I found it interesting from a social dynamic perspective. Also it's probably important to learn about such co-opting strategies.

    Not sure who is in the "right" here but the domain owners kinda get the last word on what they want and how to do things don't you think?

    It's also kind of curious that the first few posts here seem to be so vitriolic against the posting of this article. As I recall /. is supposed to be "news for nerds" or some such. It seems to me "Coups" and "Underground Mac Movements" are about as nerdy as you can get.

    Then again, I must be new here...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by EllynGeek (824747)
      It's also interesting how many people who don't care took the time to post flames about how much they don't care. It's important to the people involved, and as you said possibly a good lesson for any online community. As far as nerdy stuff goes, well, /. is heavily-infested with trolls who are not nerds, and don't really have skills of any kind, except wandering all over the Internet putting down everything and everyone.

      • Re:I found it interesting.. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by osu-neko (2604) on Sunday September 09 2007, @10:30PM (#20534273)

        It's also interesting how many people who don't care took the time to post flames about how much they don't care.

        It's the difference between a mature human being comfortable with his or her place in the universe, and an immature person who thinks he or she is the center of the universe. The mature individuals know some things interest them and some things don't, but that some of those things that don't interest them do interest other people. They simply skip over anything that doesn't interest them. The immature people get upset that something that doesn't interest them was posted. If it doesn't interest them, why did anyone waste the time posting it? If anyone else is interested in it, they must be "losers".

        The real problem at the core for them is, every time something is posted that doesn't interest them, it proves that the universe does not revolve around them, and they just can't stand that. So they must complain. Any time the universe does not appear to be specifically tailored for them, they must complain. Obviously something is wrong with the universe if it isn't arranged for their ultimate convenience.

  • File under "Who gives a shit" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rudy_wayne (414635) on Sunday September 09 2007, @04:59PM (#20531849)
    After reading the "open letter" only one thought comes to mind.

    These guys really need to get a life.

  • Hypocrisy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by lena_10326 (1100441) on Sunday September 09 2007, @06:19PM (#20532473) Homepage
    The general consensus seems to be this story is a non-story, of course I would agree, but I find it highly illuminating that the consensus was very different when a similar story appeared regarding virtual corruption in the game of Eve, which in my opinion was a very non-story.

    http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/26/ 0016226 [slashdot.org]

    By the way, don't give me any bull that one is free and the other is a paid for service... they're both internet communities. No one is forced to use them.

    So, I guess the lesson is it only matters to you when it's a forum you happen to use.

    • Re:Hypocrisy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jjohnson (62583) on Sunday September 09 2007, @08:08PM (#20533247) Homepage
      Not quite. Regardless of ./ers participation in Eve, it's well known that it's a 100K strong community, so any interesting community dynamics are newsworthy, moreso because they reflect on the MMO genre itself.

      Most of the reason this is a non-story is that there's a total of four people with two servers involved. I'm far from certain that there's more than 100 people who even give a shit about the 'attempted coup'.

  • Honor among thieves? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cypherz (155664) * on Sunday September 09 2007, @06:24PM (#20532509)
    Very funny when pirates are upset when somebody tries to steal their board. Why would they think that their membership would behave honorably?

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